According to Beijing-based business news magazine Caixin, the contest is closer than you might think. In a post published on the Caixin website Monday [in Chinese] one of the publication’s bloggers, Wang Pei, teamed up with a friend in Boston and set out on the streets with identical grocery lists, including 19 food items and two types of gasoline. The mission, to answer the question: “How expensive is China?”

While not exactly a scientific study, Wang admits, the exercise reveals that a surprising 10 of the food items, including green beans and bananas, were more expensive in China. In Hangzhou, a scenic coastal city near Shanghai, the price of beef brisket per 1.1 pound, or 500 grams, and the cost of a dozen eggs were both double the prices found in Boston. A liter of milk, meanwhile, was nearly triple.

Hangzhou’s premium gasoline was also 23% more expensive, and the overall price of the entire basket of goods purchased there was 8% higher.

The average per capita income in Hangzhou in 2009 was 26,864 yuan, or $4,024, according to the Hangzhou local government. Boston’s was $32,255.

China’s inflation has been skyrocketing these days. In November, the consumer price index rose 5.1%, the steepest climb since July 2008.

That’s a stark contrast to the U.S. market, where the index rose 0.1% in November, up 1.1% from 2009.

The big culprit in China’s CPI rise was the cost of food, which jumped 11.7% last month and 10.1% in October. Food prices in the U.S. barely moved, crawling 0.2% in November.

Inflation is also apparent in the housing market, where Wang also drew a comparison, looking at a 99 square meter apartment near Harvard University with an 89 square meter flat at Zhejiang University. The Harvard apartment, listed at 2.75 million yuan, or roughly $411,000, was a bargain when measured against the 3.5 million yuan Zhejiang flat, that, while equipped with a flatscreen TV (in the pictures at least), lacked the oven, fireplace, wood floors, and porch included with its Ivy League counterpart.

Real estate has for years given most people sticker shock, but the inflation is beginning to trickle down to daily goods, like gas and grub, and that’s when people really start to notice it, says Patrick Chovanec, an economics professor at Tsinghua University.

China’s government is intent on battling its inflation problem. It has already ordered producers of cooking oil to cap prices and appears likely tighten credit in the upcoming months.

With more comparisons like Wang’s possibly on the way, the government may not have much time to lose. “This is just a demo study,” he says, “but it’s a reminder to all that the prices of things in China are higher than everyone thinks they are.”